Came across a good post by Seth Godin today in which he said that publishers spend so much time on their new book releases, but it's the backlist that earns the profits.

To clear up confusion, the backlist are all the older books. The ones except the current book. Although my current book is proving to be a small outlier. In the three weeks it has been out, it's hit number one in the German Amazon espionage category three times. It's paid my rent for the next three months.

My backlist powers about 95% of my monthly revenue. When a new book comes out, it thankfully does quite well. But it's not until it's been in the backlist for about three months or so, that revenue really begins to take off. Why? I suspect it's because it takes that long for Amazon's algorithm to really find the right readers. The book needs to "settle" into its category. That's my theory anyway. I could be wrong.

So the backlist should never be neglected. It's what pays our rent, feeds us, and keeps the dog in the luxury lifestyle that he expects. That's why I spend about 60% of my workday focusing on backlist titles, and setting up promotions and backmatter promo texts.

I like Seth's description of the backlist as the foundation list. Because that is indeed what the backlist is. The foundation of the business. The assets that will gradually develop to pay you a nice sum of cash every month.

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